Cincinnati Bell, a Broadwing Company
http://www.cincinnatibell.com
http://www.broadwing.com

Cincinnati Bell provides a wide range of telecommunications goods and services in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, area. The area served by the company includes portions of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and covers more than 2,400 square miles. Cincinnati Bell provides services to both business and residential customers.

Cincinnati Bell started in 1873 at The City and Suburban Telegraph Company, which provided telegraph services to homes and businesses in this area. But after the telephone was invented in 1876, Cincinnati Bell realized the future of personal and business communications, changed its name to "The Cincinnati and Suburban Telegraph Association and Telephone Exchange" and installed the first telephone switchboard.

Until 1984, Cincinnati Bell and other telephone companies operated as a regulated monopoly. When that ended, competition burst into the telecommunications industry, changing how these companies do business. No longer a "local" phone service provider, Cincinnati Bell now added long distance, Internet and wireless phone services to its roster.

In 1999, Cincinnati Bell acquired IXC Communications, Inc. and named the merged company Broadwing, Inc. Cincinnati Bell remains the name of the local telephone service company.